Favorites from this week

This week has been full of some really amazing news, and it was difficult to pick the favorites to feature toward the top. Thus I officially describe this list as in no particular order (NPO), not to be confused with the medical lingo of non per os (NPO, nothing by mouth). However, the first one is probably my absolute favorite. No wait, the second one. But really, the third. Ooh, though, that first one.Washington, D.C. Releases its Transgender Rights CampaignCheck out the first five ads at the link above. Beautiful people, beautiful campaign. YES. NipplegateOr, why New Yorker cartoons cannot be shown on Facebook. Picture below is extracted from the full article. Definitely read the complete satire.Tips for MansplainersWritten by a man who teaches other men about sexual harassment, and references the original article by Rebecca Solnit, which was featured a few weeks ago. The five tips he includes at the link above are really for any person in your life who thinks they know more than you, for any reason of power of privilege, and try to tell you your business. But for a brief bit of background I quote below:"As Solnit put it in a follow-up piece last month, mansplaining is the "intersection between overconfidence and cluelessness where some portion of (the male) gender gets stuck."In nearly 20 years of teaching gender studies courses, I've seen a lot of guys get stuck at that intersection. What's changed is that more and more of them are recognizing it as a problem, even if that recognition is steeped in defensiveness.  In class last week, one male student brought up mansplaining unprompted; he complained that "feminists think any time a man shares an opinion, he's a 'mansplainer.'"  For men like this student, "mansplaining" has become the new sexual harassment allegation — an unfair charge that no man can disprove, defined by shifting and opaque rules.As I learned teaching workshops on sexual harassment to all-male audiences, most guys don't want to do or say offensive things.  Their misunderstanding of what sexual harassment entails led some to fear that even their most well-intentioned gestures or remarks would be misconstrued as harassment.  The bulk of my job was making it clear that sexual harassment was less of a vast catch-all than they imagined.  Not harassing women, in other words, was less difficult to avoid than they imagined.The same is true for mansplaining.   Despite the fears of many fellas like my student, mansplaining isn't a term for any time a guy tries to explain himself.   Mansplaining is about a very specific instance of "privilege and ignorance… when a dude tells you, a woman, how to do something you already know how to do, or how you are wrong about something you are actually right about, or miscellaneous and inaccurate 'facts' about something you know a hell of a lot more about than he does.""Shannon Eastin, NFL's first woman officialKnowing how to do one's job is all that matters, but pointing out that women are making strides is important. Go Shannon Eastin!""I hope to show it really doesn't matter if you are male or female," Eastin said last month.Eastin walked onto the Ford Field turf about 50 minutes before kickoff Sunday, chatted briefly with a police officer and shook hands with Lions linebackers coach Matt Burke. She then went largely unnoticed as she paced the home team's sideline during pregame warm-ups...Kathy Babiak, co-director of SHARP, a partnership between the Women's Sports Foundation and the University of Michigan, said Eastin's accomplishment is encouraging."It shows the strides women and girls in sports have been making since Title IX was passed 40 years ago," Babiak said. "Before Title IX, these kinds of opportunities for women and girls were not even imaginable. It shows that women and girls have a desire, interest and ability to work in sports at all levels – even men's professional sports."Some girl will be watching Sunday and say, `Hey, I want to do the same thing!'""Free Online Cord Clamping WebinarAll should reference Judy Mercer initially for cord clamping guidance, but this free webinar might also be helpful. "What if there was a simple way to change the odds of a child becoming iron deficient in the first six months of life? What if that solution also provided 30% more stem cells to help grow developing brain and organs? What if it cost nothing?In 2012 Dr. Greene launched a worldwide campaign aimed at Transitioning Immediate Cord Clamping To Optimal Cord Clamping or TICC TOCC.During this 60 minute webinar Dr. Greene will discuss the problem that brought his team to launch an international campaign, some questions relating to why optimal cord clamping provides benefit to baby, rationale founded in the physiology of blood circulation at birth, importance of reducing risk of iron-deficiency anemia, the history behind the practice of immediate cord clamping, and the simple solution proposed by Dr. Greene."  And I leave you with this comic, originally found via Scarleteen:Happy weekend, y'all.